Project Random - Update!

I'm about to call Project Random a failure...I have gotten the base coat done on a few of the models, and need to wash/highlight, etc.  But its been so long since I have painted anything, and there are 3 big tournaments coming up, where I want to be fully painted for, and I'm thinking of painting the skorne up for them.

Feburary 11th is the inaugural Gold Rush Rampage in Sacramento:   http://goldrushrampage.com/

March 2nd-4th is the 2nd annual Bay Area Open: http://www.frontlinegaming.org/community/bay-area-open/

May 25th-28th is the Khan of Cons, Kublacon: http://www.kublacon.com/

Deciding what I'm going to play, I might play with my Skorne instead of the Trolls....Which means Trolls get to sit for a bit, which means, Project Random is on hold at the very least.

Project: Random Model

  I wasn't sure what I wanted to paint next, I've got a few models with some paint on them, some models with primer, some models just built, some models in packages.
  After the Slow Grow League, I'm not sure what I want to paint.  So I put together all the play cards for every model/unit I do not have fully painted, and randomly picked out a card.  And the winner is:

TROLLKIN FENNBLADES!!!!

RAWR!! PAINT ME NOW!!

  Ok so why is there paint on them....well these were one of my models units where I started painting, but I had just finished another previous unit, so I really was trying to push these guys through, and I just couldn't do it.  But fate has spoken! Fennblades you will be finished and be able to stand on the battlefield proud and fully painted!

  To be continued...

Battle On!

  End of the League Escalation Tournament!  We had decided as a group to try out the SR2012 Beta rules, and they were interesting.
  4 League players ultimately showed up (6 folks were there during the day, Dan the shop owner who also played didn't have anyone to watch the shop for him, and Kyle the Troll player had to work so stopped in to say hi)
  First mission: Supply and Demand (Objective Scenario), 15pts, 3 min turns, 1 min extension.  The idea of the scenario, keep your objective 'alive' and its control zone clear while trying to destroy your opponents objective and contest his zone.
  I ran pMorghoul with this, I wanted to run both of my lists (Naaresh being my other caster, and both lists are in my previous post).  Plus I decided that pMorghoul would be easier to run at 3min turns.  My opponent had eKruger, and pretty new to the game.  The game went pretty quickly, as we only had 3min per turn, and a 30min round.  I ended up getting a quick control point by sacrificing my savage holding his beasts up (woldworden and a warpwolf) and then slamming my gladiator into the warpwolf, contesting his zone while keeping mine clear.  Game goes to time before I can run pMorghoul in and plink eKruger to death.

Megalith is on the other side of the table trying to find some daises to run through

  Second mission: A Flag Too Far (Flank Scenario), 25pts, 5pt reinforcements, 7min turns, 3min extension.  This was against Ryan, who was the other experienced Warmahordes player in the League.
  The idea was to control the scoring flag closest to you (in the picture, my scoring flags have the green chip on them) while having the scoring flag furthest from you contested.  You got bonus points for controlling both flags.
  Our TO Dustin decided to bump up the time restrictions because of the new players, so we went to 7min turns instead of 5min.
  Ryan brought his Circle forces with Baulder and Runs Through Daisies a.k.a. Megalith.  I brought Naaresh, and his Gators.  I am really enjoying Naaresh and his shenanigans.  This was also a reinforcement scenario, so I had Thrullg and a Croak Hunter available to come in on the right flank of the board, 20-some-odd inches from the back of my side of the table, and 3 inches in.  This is where I ultimately won the game, my reinforcements were solos and able to act independently and Ryan's reinforcement was a beast, a Woldwyrd.  I was able to run my reinforcements to my furthest scoring flag, and get a quick control point, while Ryan though it was better to have his beast closer to do major damage to my Iron Fleshed Gators.  There was much back and forth in the game, unfortunately my Gladiator died early, but luck was on my side as I did major damage with multiple free strikes from Gators on Megalith as he tried to charge my caster with ARM 20 from his whippings.  He rolled poorly, as his mind was taken out, did I mention my lucky rolls?  All the free strikes hit, and I rolled way above average for all of them, each hit doing 7-10 damage.  Megalith was unbuffed since Naaresh had Lamentation on, and Baulder was worried about upkeeps and casting spells with his 6 fury.  After Megalith, I used Cyclone to get away, and charged Baulder who was engaged with my Cyclops Shaman, only to come 1/8th of an inch away from melee.  But again my luck prevails as time is called, and I was sitting on one control point to nil and win.

  Third Mission: Demolition (Distant Scenario): 35 pts, 10min turns, 5min extension.  Without looking at the scenario packet, and working from memory, there was one objective in the middle, which, if controlled, allowed a warcaster/warlock within 4" of the objective place a 5" template on the table (within 4" of the caster) and do a magic POW 14 unboostable damage on everything under the template.  You got points for controlling the zone furthest away from you (2 zones, diagonal to the center).  Bonus points were awarded for using the blast on your opponents side of the table.
   I played against the final possible opponent JJ.  Now JJ is new to miniatures in general, and is about 10 years old, and is hard to keep focused on the game because there is so much going on in the store by this time.  He plays Cygnar and eHaley and lots of Jacks, which is fine.  But he allocates all of his focus out, and has his Sentinels and Chargers do most of the heavy lifting.  At some point when he gets older he will be a terror to play.  He understand how his Jacks work, and can do damage with them, but he doesn't focus fire on targets to take them out, and he doesn't understand how to use his solos in combination yet.  I did teach him you can charge your own guys, as I train wrecked my Bronzeback into a Gator and made room so i could train wreck off his Sentinels so I could get to Haley.  Train Wreck is a crazy animus.  He did put me off a turn by popping eHaley's feat and throwing my plan off, but i was able to at least maneuver things around to set up the train wreck next turn.

  So two games go to time, and I win by grabbing 1 quick control point and the games going to time, while the last was a caster kill.

  Ultimately I win the League Tournament, I came in 3rd place overall for the League, and won Best Painted Army!  So this League was pretty successful for me I would say, and I have a least 75% of my Skorne + many Minions all  painted.

   Mad props for Dustin the Press Ganger and TO out of Olde World Gaming in Elk Grove, CA for hosting the Slow Grow League.

Ready for the Battlefield!

Today is the end of one of my LGS's Slow Grow League and I put enough touches on my Gators so I have a fully painted 35 point army.

We are running an escalation tournament using the Beta SR2012 rules, I do intend to take pictures and have a report up for it.

I have two lists ready:

15 pts   pMorghoul                          Naaresh
                  Savage                               Krea
                  Shaman                              Shaman
                  Gladiator                            Gladiator
             Full Beast Handlers            Full Beast Handlers

25 pts   add:
             Full Arcuarii                       Full Gatormen
             Extoller Soulward              Pain Giver Task Master

Reinforcements(5pts):
             Thrullg                                Thrullg
             Croak Hunter                      Croak Hunter

35 pts   add:
             Cannoneer                           Bronzeback

Reinforcements(7pts):
             Thrullg                                 Thrullg
             Croak Hunter                         Croak Hunter
             Pain Giver Task Master         Extoller Soulward

With the escalation, we know we are going to be trying the Reinforcement rules for the 25 and 35 point levels.  The additional caveat is that the Reinforcement from the 25 point list, needs to be somewhere in the 35 point list (in the list itself, or as Reinforcements)

I took this week to redo my Gatormen (just had them base previously).  I had picked up some new resin swamp bases made by Secret Weapon Miniatures, they look perfect for Gators.  They still need to be detailed, I need to do some jewelry, and do some highlights, but I think they look spectacular so far, and good enough to place on the battlefield.

I am very excited that I have all of these lists fully painted.  Well OK I'm missing paint on the Arcuarii, but I had gotten them used, and need to fix them up.  But i'm secretly planning to use Morghoul for the 15 point and Naaresh for the 25 and 35 point level.  So everything I put down on the table, will be fully painted.  It makes me very excited to say that!

Here is my quick pick of the Gatormen:

Something Skorne....and Brown

So I continued my Skorne Slow Grow model painting, and well...things turned out brown.  I was thinking they beasties were from the desert, they are browns most likely, and well this is what happened:

  I was going to write some things about this, but the editor doesn't want me to make some text along with the pictures and i'm not liking how it looks, so you just get pictures.  Things I like, the Grey goes well with the brown, I've been doing well on the green jade gems on the Krea, and the Purple tentacles on Thrulg has been given complements.

Painted to Completion

     I actually painted something to completion, and thought I would share.  Ok ok, I know I have some dygmies painted and ready to share (taken to the Bay Area Open).  But at another LGS we have a slow grow league, and I've decided to paint up the Skorne that I have laying around, so I can get back into painting.

     For your viewing, I present pMorghoul

   


   

     Ok it has been awhile since I've done photos, its a quickie photo done with the iphone and a quick brush up, really so I make sure to post something, and share rather than having them look good.  So I apologize in advance.

     I am so so happy with the red on the cloth cloak, it came out fantastically, other parts are ok (me being my harshest critic), but practice makes perfect, and thats what I need right now, lots of practice.  The other thing I love on the model, is the gem on his left hip, the Jade look came out fantastically, the one on the right, didn't come out as well as the left.  One reason why I went with Skorne for the slow grow.  I can get it painted and try out techniques and make it better than tabletop, but not worry about how it looks and having to strip them so I can paint them better later.

Post-Kublacon

  Its been more than a week since Kublacon has been over and I haven't blogged anything.  I know I know, bad blogger.  I will not make an excuse, but after some blog taunting, I have felt the need to post SOMETHING.  I entered 4 models, eEiryss, Janissa Stonetide, Earthborn Dire Troll, and Troll Whelps (as a squad).  I've already featured the EBDT and the Whelps previously, they were in there to get a gauge of where my painting level is.  Previous work, I wasn't expecting to win anything with them, certainly, in my opinion, better than average tabletop level of painting.  They did not medal, but eEiryss and Janissa did!  Both netted me Bronze medals.  What I do not have are pictures of my winning entries.  I am expecting to set up the proper photos for them soonish, depending on how busy I end up getting this week.

 What I do have, pictures of my continuing legion projects, and props from Lost Hemisphere Radio!

  First the props.  My Trollsaken, which was featured as a Runner-Up in the Bring the Blight contest in No Quarter 36 was mentioned in the May 20th episode 28 of Lost Hemisphere Radio Podcast (http://lhradio.blogspot.com/).  The comments from the podcasters were, I like the Trollsaken, and its NEAT, but that Mauler is crazy good.  I did send an email to the podcasters:

 So I've been catching up with Warmachine podcasts and listening to new ones, and I want to say thanks for the 'shout out' when my Trollsaken model was mentioned in your podcast.  I was super excited when I made it and showed it off to my friends, and even more excited when it was featured as a runner up in NQ36.  It made me smile that people I don't know enjoy what I created, and wanted to drop a note and say thanks.

  -M


 and received a reply:

Most awesome, Mike. We’re glad to bring a smile to your face, you certainly impressed!

Rock on

Gdaybloke

   I mentioned this to my gaming/painting buddies, and was promptly taunted by my blogging nemesis to enter the next contest.  So after a back and forth, I have the Let the Banners Fly entry in my head, and am currently working on that (I'm actually waiting for some molded parts to dry, and I need to get my plasticard out)

  Also at Kublacon, I was able to attend a vehicle weathering seminar being presented by misterjustin of secret weapon miniatures. http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com

  Now I'm not currently working on any vehicles, I am taking much of what i learned for basing, the mud/snow information is fantastic.  misterjustin also had a complete vehicle weathering class locally in Sacramento this past weekend, and I also attended that.  I absorbed so much information, recorded the session, and took notes.

  What I have done so far with this information, and with help of their website I used a "dot filter" method of painting and created a rocky base:

  Since I am essentially playing around with the base, I wanted to get the "snowy" look, so get an idea of what the end product will look like, I painted the snow parts white:

  Finally I added the unpainted Absylonia to see how the model would "look" with the base:

  Not bad for my prototype so far, now I want to add some more "realistic snow" to the white and see how it works out, and possibly make another base and just add the snow and let the stone underneath show through more possibly. 

Trollsaken

Finally No Quarter #36 has come out, and my entry for 'Bring the Blight' challenge has been announced and shown.  And my Trollsaken didn't win the challenge.  On the 'Blight'-side I am a Runner-up, and have officially been published for painting!  Friends are already looking for my autograph, and I will gladly do so for the low low low price of $1 US.  Without further ado, here is the Trollsaken:

This all started since I found a cheap Legion starter box and I asked my buddy Scott about putting together a 25pt army and he came up with this list:

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight (*5pts)

* Harrier (2pts)

* Shredder (2pts)

* Shredder (2pts)

* Shredder (2pts)

* Angelius (9pts)

* Carnivean (11pts)

The Forsaken (2pts)

The difficulty of this list....it was hard to get ahold of an Angelius, and impossible to get a Forsaken.  I had extra Kreil Warriors, so I decided to do some modifications, and behold the Trollsaken came to life.  The idea also happened to correspond with a NQ painting challenge, Bring the Blight, blighten up a non-blighted model.  This is probably one of my favorite models i've done so far.  (Note:  I added the Harrier in there, instead of another Shredder, I have it, so I might as well use it)

Works in Progress

I've been on a Ret kick and have started taking my painting wants out on them.  It is actually a simpler paint job than my trolls, and they are easier to "knock out"

Right now staring at me I have eEiryss and the Destor Thane solo.  I picked up the Thane when he was released.  But there was a mispack and I have an extra flank for the regular cav models.  Contacted and then Called PP with the difficulty and it was sent promptly, and I was excited to put him together.

I've got eEiryss on her statue, which I've added alot of sculpt to it, and I intend to take the 'leaves' I use, get them "greened up", and put them crawling up the vines i've made around the base with dead ones in the grass/earth mound around her.

So my WIP currently looks like:

I also have Janissa Stonetide looking at me from the back of the workspace.  I have her base, finished, and her skin is base coated and inked.  I really need to get her done for the painting challenge I have with my buddy Lance at the end of the month.  Its just not inspiring to me at the moment, unfortunately.

Lastest Paintings

I was able to sit down and finish my Halberdiers and the Officer and Standard UA.  I really like how they turned out, the faces are a little meh.  I wasn't excited about the faces, and will have to retouch them.  But they are done done done!

Bonus painted models came along also!  I scored a 'deal' from ebay and picked up Dahlia & Skarath.  Keeping in theme of my bronze/brown spectrum, I went brown with Skarath.  I really like how he turned out, and goes well with my Retribution models.  Dahlia got a very green hairdo, plus a little purple-ish eye liner, since her eye is closed on the model.  I really like how these models turned out.

Troll Whelps

These little bundles of joy have been sitting on the side, skin base painted, but neglected.  Today I decided to reward these little guys with a finished paint job, and I liked how they came out!  The skin came out very well plus, I did enjoy how the bottle on the 'drunken whelp' came out.  I had a good relaxing time painting these.  Enjoy!

Painting Challenge "whoopsies"

So I made an aggressive painting challenge to myself, and life got in the way and I was unable to fully finish the challenge.

What I did get done:
A full squad of Houseguard Halberdiers with UA to tabletop quality (bases done, but I need to finishing highlighting and the face/eyes).
Adeptis Rahn

As for the tournament, I did well.  I'm getting better, but again I was assasinated before I could assassinate. The last game falling under the NQ Challenge, which I failed, but figured out later.  Rahn had a Destroyer in his face, a Guard Dog barely within 6", and eIrusk behind him and a wall with defenders ward on.  Rahn was the only piece I had left, with the full 8 focus.  I was in line to do a direct hit  with Force Hammer on eIrusk, but he was at DEF 22, so I would have needed to roll above average (14) to hit.  I could have moved around the Destroyer (staying in melee range), to get an angle on the dog (who was in line within 2 1/2" of eIrusk), but if I moved, the dog would have been able to counter charge.  I could have teleported over, but then I didn't have the right angle on the dog to hit eIrusk.  I gave the game to my opponent, but later I realized I could have teleported the Destroyer, then teleported myself, and have the best roll to hit the dog, who would have hit eIrusk and do collateral damage.  That was my best chance of killing him and winning the game (he was down to about 5 boxes), but I would have needed to roll above average again to kill him outright on the collateral damage (POW 12).  I don't think the chain blast would have done better, boosted blast damage would have been about the same, but it would have been 3 focus allowing me to boost damage once, and the possibility of hitting him with the 2nd blast.  But it would have meant even more lucky rolls.

Pictures of the Halberdiers will come along when I finish the face/flesh highlighting

Adeptis Rahn

One model down! Adeptis Rahn here.  I really am digging the "petina" of the armor and the green and how the leather is coming out.  I think I need to do a bit more tweaking on the highlighting and everything will look how I envision it.  Again, the flesh tones and the eyes came out spectacularly, plus the freehand tattoo on his head wasn't too shabby at all.  Without trying to sound egotistical, I impressed myself with my first attempt at it working so well.

Painting Challenge! Plus, how I did over the weekend

   I believe my Trolls are upset with me.  Heading down to the Bay Area last time, my Trolls utterly failed me.  The next week, I went to the LGS and again, my Trolls utterly failed me.  I think they are upset that I'm cheating on them with some Legion, making the "Trollsaken" (Which was submitted to PP for their magazine contest, I should find out tomorrow what happened when the new No Quarter comes out)
   So, we are benching the Trolls temporarily.  The Retribution of Scyrah is calling me!  I pulled them out for 35 points of Tournament on Saturday.  Unfortunately either the day was bad and/or it was short notice and 4 people showed up.  We played round robin, killbox, I used Kaelyssa for the first 2 battles, then Rhan for my 3rd round.
   The first round was against, Kreoss, he had 2 squads of daughters, 2 squads of exemplars who ran at me. I shot one squad of daughters who were flanking with my Mage Hunters, and killed all but one.  The squad that was Defenders warded got a face full of combustion from a Phoenix, and the other half that didn't die, failed their command check and wanted none of the angry elves.  I'm feeling ok at this point, but things are getting closer, so I pop my feat (everything stealthed, models cannot be charged) and see what happens.  My opponent (Kristin who runs Warmahordes for the Vacaville LGS) charged Kreoss forward, popped his feat, knocking Kaelessa down, then one of his special units gave this ability to see through stealth for his Redeemer, 3 shots from him and Kaelessa was done.  But it did take all 3 shots, he completed his assassination run successfully, otherwise I would have had him.  It was a pretty quick game, ended on his turn 2.
   Next Jimmy, one of the local PGers was playing Lord Carver.  I was killing pigglets, and controling where we fought, and went for my assassination run, Kaelessa shooting him stealing fury and damaging him.  He had 2 fury on him, I stole the first one, he used the 2nd to transfer the 6 damage.  Then it was plink plink plink roll under average and do a few points with my next two shots.  It was up to my 4 remaining Mage Hunters to get in and close it out.  But they went plink plink plink, left him alive and he roflstomped me on his turn.
   Finally Nathan.  Now Nathan is one of the better players in the area, and I was facing Xerxes.  I decided to switch it up and play Rhan.  Highlight of the match, I charged a Bronzeback and a Gladiator with my full squad of Halberdiers.  Under their officer mini-feat, they were at pow 14 (+2 Brutal Charge, +2 from mini-feat) and +2 MAT as long as they were in melee range of another squad member.  I destroyed a slightly wounded Gladiator with 3 Halberdiers and the Soulless escort, and I brought the Bronzeback to 3 boxes left with 3 more Halberdiers (after a Force Hammer from Rhan doing some damage and knocking him down).  I admit there was some good charge dice rolling there, they were above average.  But it was a bit of a surprise to Nathan.  I then sent Narn the ninja to finish off the Bronzeback (charge, weapon master, 2 attacks, should kill it).  Plink, 2 damage on the charge, no damage on the 2nd attack.  After such a good turn to that point, I was demoralized and made mistakes and the Bronzeback was allowed to live.  The next turn the Bronzeback thrashed my Pheonix on the flank, and Xerxes moved forward, with Defenders Ward on him, no fury.  Since he was in base to base with another model, he was 15 def/22 arm.  My turn I do Rhan, pop my feat, Force Hammer Xerxes down, and let the Mages do their magic boosted magic thing.  I pull him out of B2B with the first mage so now he is a knocked down 5 def/20 arm and boost damage into him.  I don't kill him, and the next turn Xerxes gets in Rhans face and game over.
  What I learned, I need to play more.  I'm getting it, and I think against weaker players, I would have done better.  I had some moral victories, I was doing the right thing against very good players, they were able to use their experience to overcome my actions.

   To the Painting Challenge:

  Down at the "newer Elk Grove LGS" they are having a free 15pt tournament, and its closer than the Vacaville LGS who is also having a tournament, so I think just on gas spent, the Elk Grove store is winning.  But to challenge myself I'm going to have a fully painted army for the store.

  My plan is to bring the following 15 point lists, fully painted:

Adeptis Rahn
    Pheonix
House Shyeel Battle Mages
House Shyeel Magister
min unit Houseguard Halberdiers

Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper
    Chimera
    Hydra
min unit Mage Hunter Strike Force
    Mage Hunter Commander.

  I believe this is totally doable by working a little at a time each day on these models.  Kaelyssa and the Warmachines are fully painted and based, Rahn is almost finished, the Halberdiers, Mages and Magisters are started.  The MH Strike Force and Commander are primed.

   First up, finishing Rahn, and working on the Halberdiers who have the base armor done, they need flesh and highlighting.

   So expect more pictures this week!

Earthborn DT

  I'm still working on getting good photos up here, and playing with them, so I can have a good representation of my work.  Its a learning process, but I wanted to make sure I got this bad boy up on the blog and share.  The biggest time consumption was dealing with my obsidian tie in for the army.  There are so many rock formations on this guy, it was a bit of a pain to make sure they were all black

 
  This was a model that I had gotten used, and the top flap of his "loincloth of decency" was missing so I had to make one myself.  I thought it came out pretty well, and I did dig the gray cloth.  I've been creating a leather brown on my other models, but since I was going to base this guy brown, I thought it might be a little redundant, and went gray.  I think it came out fantastically, just an enjoyable model to paint and play.  I was able to put this bad boy down on the tabletop last weekend, and I did get some favorable comments on the paint job.  I'm pretty excited it came out so well.   What I do need to concentrate more on, highlighting.

Previous Paintings

I was looking over my posts here and saw that I don't have any picture of my previous works, so I wanted to put a smattering of my trolls out there so people can see some of my painted

models.

Again, I need to get the light box set up for better pictures, but these are just some quickie pics.

Battle Report

Yesterday I went down to the LGS before heading to my sisters for dinner with the family and was able to get a couple of games in. I got there before Billy, one of the better local players, left. I brought with me a smattering of Trolls, I was going to play Gunnbjorn, but realized that I forgot his cards, so I decided to go with Grim instead. We decided to play 35 pts.

Grim Angus

Bomber

Slag Troll

Impaler

Fell Caller Hero

Janissa Stonetide

Trollkin Champ Hero

min Burrowers

min Fennblades + UA (Officer and Drummer)

Another one of our better players, Nathan, had been complaining about the new Ranking Officers and how broken the Menoth ones were. In particular, the Menoth Ranking Officers with Sea Dogs and Harbinger broke the game and was unbeatable. Billy took the challenge, and came up with using Cryx and Venethrax. Working from memory, the list went something like this:

Venethax

Bone Chicken arc node

Stalker

Skarlock

Satyxis Raider Captain

Siren

min Bile Thralls

Bloat Thrall

full Satyxis Raiders

Withershadow Combine

Nothing out of the ordinary, or over the top. But it did pack a wallop. Those Satyxis Raiders are just ugly, mostly because they don't take blast damage and have a 12" threat range with Advance Deploy and a toolbox of other special abilities. Plus it was my first time dealing with them, so that put a nice twist on it.

We played a scenario "The Gauntlet". I was really trying out the burrowers, because i just got them a couple of months ago, and knowing they can be pretty dirty, haven't used them yet. I didn't have any difficulties about pulling them out against Billy. In a nutshell, I lost to scenario, because the raiders wiped out my Fennblade tar pit and my solos who were holding my control area. Although he would have killed my caster because I had gone for the caster kill and didn't quite make it.

I made a ton of mistakes in this game, which I'm confident would have given me a better shot at winning if I didn't make them. There was also one big key roll which failed. I forgot my Fennblades vengeance move on turn 3, which would have put me in charging range of the Raider on my left flank (fennblades were on the right flank). They would have killed 3-4, and held them off another turn possibly. On the burrowers charge on the Bloat Thrall, the Stalker, and Venethrax, with the Champion Hero in range to use his 10 cmd, roll an 11 for their terror check, and get to stand there and get killed.

Finally, when i was trying to 'No Quarter Challenge' my way into a win, I freed up the Impaler and Grim so I could take shots at Venethrax, I forgot to pop Grim's feat, allowing him to miss on a boosted RAT roll. Otherwise it was possible I could have won on caster kill.

Result: Loss

Lesson Learned: Must play more and remember what I can do and DO IT

Another game, Billy pulled out Kara Sloan and some Cygnar, I played the same list, he had (again from memory)

Kara Sloan

Thunderhead

Hunter

Cyclone

Squire

Mechanik solo

Black 13th

Stormsmith

I had the same list, and we played Killbox. I was ready for Vengeance this time! 4 successful tough rolls later on his turn 1, none of the fennblades died, no Vengeance for me. The burrowers tied up and killed the Hunter, while throwing a couple of good hits on the Thunderhead who was holding the middle hill. After clearing them out, the Thunderhead was able to move forward and start zapping folks, the Champion hero was a champ and made 2 tough rolls! My turn, and also soon for me to leave to head to my sisters for dinner, I was 'sneaking' up my bomber on the left flank with phantom hunter upkept on him all game. I had to have a backup plan, just in case things went wrong, so I knew i had to kill the Thunderhead. I had to move Grim first, but to get him where i needed him to go, and out of the charge path to the Thunderhead for both of my Hero's who were alive. But I was starting out of the Range of the Bomber to put Far Strike on, so I put Far Strike on the Impaler, moved Grim so that I could pop my feat (yea I rememberd) so I could reduce the Def of the Cyclone who was in front and just to the left of Kara, behind the hill in the middle. Then Grim shots the snare gun at the Thunderhead, knocking it down. Fell Call Hero stands the Champ Hero up from knockdown (those 2 tough rolls) and charges the Thunderhead, does much damage. Hero charges the Thunderhead and scraps it. Backup plan successful, I'll live through the next turn with 2 transfers and the Bomber and Impaler without any damage. The last 2 burrowers kill the hunter with some fantastic rolls, scrap another one. The Impaler moves up, so he can put Far Strike on the Bomber and takes a pot shot at the Charger. From where the Impaler was, if I did crit slam the Charger, not only would have it been knocked down, but easier for the bomber to hit it, and get Kara in the blast damage. Well I threw another fury on the Impailer, and BLAMMO, crit slam back, and the angle was such that Kara got clipped and was also knocked down. I also rolled far enough, it didn't displace Kara back. Bomber rolls up 5 inches, and its able to drop bombs right on top of Kara's head, explosion, and a massive boosted roll, one dead cygnar caster.

Result: Win

Lesson Learned: When I remember to do things, I do much better. Crazy huh?

So, I shook Billy's hand, thanked him for the games, and headed off to my sisters for dinner. Good day for gaming, and food.

Battle Wound

So I've been jumping around a few project, as usual. My buddy Lance and I had a tossing of the gauntlet moment:

On Feb 17, 2011, at 3:55 PM, Lance E wrote:

btw, Challenge accepted! I'll see you in the model case in three months.

On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 3:09 PM, Mike Z wrote:

My Janissa will trump your janissa!

On Feb 17, 2011, at 3:06 PM, Lance E wrote:

I should paint janissa for kubla get to guarentee at least one "crowd favorite" vote.

So I will be throwing down against Lance at Kublacon, model-a-model in a duel for a year of bragging rights.

But I'm working on a, for now, secret project! While cutting up an extra Troll Kriel Warrior I did cut my thumb. Yes, I'm sure we all know that pain. Working on a model and then blood, and wondering when the last time one had a tetanus shot. Luckily I did not have to apply super glue to the wound, It wasn't a deep cut. I didn't bleed for long but it was a bit sore, and while I worked on the model, I did bleed a little more. Wipe the blood off the model, good to go. Its rather amusing when I think about what the model is going to be, bleeding for it, would seem appropriate. I got the base model all pinned up, and mocked up the extra bits on it. Now I have to wait for some of it to cure, and put it togeather, putty a little more to smooth out the connections to the body. Find a proper base for it, get it all primed up, and a painting we will go! When I get done, I'll post more about it with the final product.

Kaelyssa's Battlebox

I had previously found the base color I want to use for my Retribution force, but not having done "human"-ish skin tone in years, I've been putting it off. But this Saturday there is a Battlebox tournament going on for some new players, and I'm going down to support and help out where needed. I'm not exactly a newbie, but I'm not sure if I would consider myself a Veteran player either. I have a good grasp of the rules and should be able to help out so that the press ganger isn't overwhelmed.

I also wanted to make sure I had a fully painted Battlebox force going in, so no looking like a slacker either. I also wanted to make sure I was using a Warmachine Battlebox force, since the store is newly stocking the game, and they mostly have the Warmachine box sets. I do not want to roll in with a Hordes Battlebox and throwing a wrench into the gears and confuse brand new players with the Fury/Transfer/Animus mechanics.

This also allowed me to play with my light box and get back into taking better miniature photos. The photos came out decently, but I need to play around with it more and get a set up that I like, that will take photos that I like. So expect some improvement on the lighting as I continue painting and taking photos. I was also excited about getting this force painted and wanted to blog it up.

Janissa's Wall

So with Janissa on the painting queue, and her base finished (to be seen later), I decided that she needed her own wall. I had previous made a wall for Cpt. Gunnbjorn (just not painted yet) and I wanted to make something similar, but went along with her base.

I grabbed my Magic-Sculpt, my rocks I got from Michaels, and some scrap aluminum foil. Plus, I had cut out some plasticard in the same dimensions as the wall template 4" by 3/4" with a hight of less than 1"

Tightly wrapping the foil to give a basic shape I wrapped it with the Magic-Sculpt. The foil allows me to shape the wall while not using more of the Magic-Sculpt than I need, saving $$$

After wrapping and molding, I added it to the plasticard and checked the size against rulers, making sure it was within specs. Since I was going to add rock to it, I made sure that I had enough room so that I could keep the height under 1"

Adding Rock to the piece, making sure to push the rock in, checking the height constantly pushing and molding.

Here is the finished product, pre-paint with the rock! Again I'm constantly checking the size, length, width, and height. One of the best things about Magic-Sculpt is that it holds shape, but doesn't set quickly so you have lots of time to work with it. It means you do have to be careful with gravity pulling it down, but you can put a piece down, look at it for a bit, and work on it again easily. Plus when it sets, its rock hard and you can easily sand and drill into it without breaking the piece. I do let things set for hours, and its best even to have it cure for at least 24 hours depending on how much sculpt putty you use.

After the Magic-Sculpt set, black primer was used. I layered the primer on to make sure there was an even coat, and I touched up with black in case i missed anything with the primer. Then did a light drybrush of white, and then highlighted some of the rock edges. Then a high gloss over the top, making sure it didn't pool up.

Behind the rock wall, is the other wall I had created for Cpt Gunnbjorn, that is a smooth piece, with a few cuts highlighted, making it look like a more solid piece of "obsidian".

I'm very happy with the end result, and cannot wait until Janissa is finished with her painting and I can throw this down on the field of play!

InstantMold

So I was reading the PP forums and found this post:

http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?50407-Has-anyone-seen-this

referring to this product:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/shop/tools-and-misc/instant-mold.html

I sent emails to friends, saying look at this! Its amazing! I need to try this!

I bought it, and I tried it...

I'm not an expert at molding, I've done a couple of simple press molds before, making feet and symbols, so this will be a real newbie experience. I followed the directions and heated up water using my coffee maker, and poured the water in a separate glass bowl. I found that I could maintain a temperature about 165˚F (the directions on the packaging say to use hot water at "about 170˚F"). The temperature went down fast, but it was good enough to get the putty warm enough to where it was easily pliable. When I needed more hot water, I poured more in from the coffee pot, or microwaved the water I had. Of course I made sure the glass bowl i used was microwave safe, and just contained water, not the putty. I didn't want anything cracking or sticking in my microwave.

After waiting a couple of minutes, when the putty was taken out of the hot water (with a tool, per directions) it drooped because of gravity, and was easily shaped. Its seemed there was a limited time to get a good shape for the item you are pressing in (a couple of minutes). It took a little trial and error to discover how much putty i would need and how much time i had before the putty started cooling off to where I wouldn't get a good copy of the item. I ended up using 3 of the blocks (2.25"x.5"x.25") out of the 6 that come with the package.

I decided to use a complex item, a wing from a Legion Harrier. Two sided press mold. It took me a little bit of trial and error to get a good mold, since this was the first time I had used the product, and was watching the products video to get some tips. It was a little more difficulty item to mold because the wing has a bit of a curve to it. I did this on purpose to give the putty a good newbie test.

Per the video instructions I cut off extra putty on the sides and cut out the pieces from the side so I could peel the putty off and the piece out. This was done carefully with a sharp hobby knife. Using my modeling compound, Magic-Sculpt set it all up and pressed it in the mold, and put the sides together, and rubber banded the whole thing together. It was very important not to use a putty/resin mix that heats up chemically, because it would then heat up the putty and ruin the mold. I was pretty confident in the material I used, since I've used it before. The most difficulty part was waiting for the material to cure, since it takes a few hours to do so fully.

TA-DA, the big reveal! I removed the copy from the two sided press mold and went....wow I used too much compound. I got a great impression on both sides, you can see the detail from the mold, and it looks fantastic. I made another, using less compound. A few hours later...another great mold, but still too much compound. So one more time, less compound. A few hours later...another great mold, more useable as a piece on a model, very acceptable! I'm sure with more practice and some time I can get better molds.

And what did I do with the extra scraps that I cut off? Well I put them back in the hot water, and molded them back together and made a press mold of the Harriers claw. I made 4 claws throughout the day, and I was delighted with the detail that came out. Of course this wasn't a 2 sided mold, but for making symbols or feet, anything you need 1 side for, the mold can be used and re-used.

None of the Magic-Sculpt compound that I used was left in the molds, it separated smoothly from the InstantMold putty, and didn't deform the molds. The best part, I can dip it all back into hot water and re-use the InstantMold putty on another item without any difficulties.

The experience using this product was fantastic, and I think making simple press molds, and simple double-sided press molds will be superb. I think the most use I will get from this, is creating my own base inserts, and then making copies.

Reference post:

Warmachine Housing: http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?49788-Modular-hexboard-harbor-and-houses(WIP)

Foam Stones: http://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/t4532-chemical-agent-s-terrain

Its a better day out today, going to be sunny, not much of humidity, so its time to Prime! So far I have assembled:

Janissa

Scouts

Fennblade UA

Croak Hunter

Gatorz!

Model ADD

I have Model ADD. No bones about it, I've got so many projects in my head right now, its hard to stay on one thing. Lately I've been putting something together or painting something, and I put it aside and look at it. Look at it, approach it at different angles (physically and mentally), play with the model a little, look at it some more. Slugtongue here has been sitting on my desk since early December, i'm still contemplating what to put on the end of the staff there.

Yesterday I was thinking about what i need to do, and I published a list of things that I will paint/assemble. And then I stare at my gators, my poor gators which are waiting to be done, they are just screaming at me "PAINT ME". I'm thinking of going with an Albino leader, with his troopers being in the brown spectrum.

Plus I keep coming up with ideas for my super secret project! I will defeat Lance and his paint-fu! He threw down the gauntlet, I only picked it up and slapped him with it!

Oh yea, I also mostly assembled, Trollkin scouts, Blythe and Bull, Fennblade UA, and Janissa Stonetide. While wanting to do something special with Stonetide's base i came up with this idea!

I used Magic-Sculpt for the base, and formed it into a cone-ish shape, bent that to the side and around, so it would give a platform. Then I embedded rocks in it. After it was done curing (about a day to make sure the sculpt is rock hard), I made another lump of sculpt for the base, and leveled by eye the previous sculpt, and embedded more rocks around it. I'm going to paint it to look similar to obsidian (my army's is tied together with an obsidian theme). Prime/paint black, highlight white reflection, then super gloss it ;) very simple, good effect.

Starting up again, showing the world some painting. This is the list of models I will be working on.

I will finish painting:

Earthborn DT

Horathol

Toughalos (full squad)

Fennblades

Cassandra

Gunnbjorn

Axer

Blitzer

Things I will prime/paint:

Mulg

Digmys

Things I will put together/prime/paint:

Janessa Stonetide

Scouts

Fennblade UA